Gwent Police sergeant Richard Evans has been acquitted today on all counts of sexual assault and committing misconduct in a public office by having sex on duty.

UPDATE: 12.06pm

A JURY was asked to decide today whether a Gwent Police sergeant sexually assaulted two female prisoners and committed misconduct in a public office by having sex on duty.

The trial of Richard Evans, 47, who denies two charges of misconduct, and three charges of sexual assault at Ystrad Mynach police station between 2003 and 2013, was summed up by Judge Eleri Rees at Cardiff Crown Court.

The seven men and five women were asked to weigh evidence given by the alleged victims earlier in the trial of Evans, of The Highway, New Inn.

One of the women, who was brought into the police station as a detainee, claimed Evans made explicit references to sexual acts after looking at her piercings and allegedly pushed a blanket off her shoulders while she was trying to put on a T-shirt over her bra.

Another woman claimed Evans was staring at her chest and allegedly ran his hands down her body while he put a T-shirt on her.

Later he allegedly grabbed her and kissed her, and she said she felt "violated and powerless", the jury heard during the judge's summing up.

A third woman alleged that Evans had had consensual sex with her in a dark cleaners' room at the police station and some time previously allegedly kissed her in the back of a police van.

Another woman, a former heroin user, alleged that Evans told her he would like to have sex with her while booking her in at the police station.

Evans denies all charges and said he had tried to use humour to calm detainees down.

The court heard Evans was suspended by Gwent Police when the allegations came to light last January. He has been a police officer since 1986 and a custody sergeant with the force since November 2003, dealing with about 25,000 detainees in his career.

The court was also told Evans had joined the relief work in Asia in the aftermath of the tsunami there in 2004.